


Recalibration

by GutterBall



Series: These Two Clownshoes [2]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Chuck turns into a narcoleptic octopus when he's sick, M/M, Sleepy Cuddles, alternate POV of the main story, and has to justify it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 08:43:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6604312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GutterBall/pseuds/GutterBall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is Chuck's point of view of Chapter 10's sleepy cuddles, inspired from <a href="http://gutterballgt.tumblr.com/post/142138325157/ooh-pov-if-you-please">this tumblr prompt</a> from estei.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Recalibration

Chuck had never been much of a cuddler. Maybe when he was a kid. Maybe when his mum was still alive. She’d been the spontaneous sort, if he remembered right. As apt to pick him up and swing him around until they both collapsed with laughter as to suddenly decide on a three-layer chocolate cake with all the trimmings for dessert.

But for as long as he could reliably remember, he’d never been a cuddler. He and his old man were always too awkward or angry, and he never let anyone else get close enough for that shite. No sense wasting intimacies on someone who’d probably be dead in a few months. Even sex had been about as affectionate and cuddly as a quarterly check-up with PPDC medical staff. 

And yet, he wasn’t at all uncomfortable with his head cushioned on Raleigh’s hard thigh, Raleigh’s hand stroking through his hair, trying to soothe the headache that had honestly been nothing but a low buzz of discomfort for almost as long as the bloke had been stroking his fingers over Chuck’s scalp.

It should be awkward as hell. Hell, they could barely stand each other most of the time. Genuine respect aside, they were too alike in too many ways and too damn opposite in others to get along in any other circumstances.

And yet.

Sighing, he closed his eyes and scooted backward until his head leaned back against the solid bulk he’d come to think of as reliability personified. Raleigh was just.. solid. Solid in muscle, solid in his support, solid in his promise that he wouldn’t leave until Chuck said so. Even his voice was solid as he continued to read that ridiculous story that nevertheless held Chuck spellbound.

He felt like a kid. Like for the first time since he was ten, someone else was taking care of him, and he was too weak to tell them to fuck off, he could take care of himself.

He should probably be scared as hell. He should probably throw a screaming fury and kick the too-helpful son of a bitch right out of his bunk and go back to the weirdly polite cold war they’d been passively waging for months now.

But Raleigh’s thigh under his cheek was warm and solid. Raleigh’s stomach against the back of his head was, too. And his voice… closing his eyes, Chuck let that voice wash over him until he drifted, until he almost Drifted, until the fingers stroking through his hair felt like the bloke was gently but steadily taking away even the low-level buzz of the lingering headache.

So, assured both that Raleigh would still be there when he woke up and that his former nemesis would never see the expression, Chuck smiled softly, cuddled back against that reliable solidity, and let himself drift away.


End file.
